We are Still There

In retrospect one of the things for which I am most proud of in my life was flying to Europe on the eve of the Iraq war to hold a candle along with millions of others in silent protest against the invasion. With very little effort in the days and weeks preceding the war I had gathered sufficient information to know that Iraq had nothing to do with 911 and that the likelihood that there were weapons of mass destruction still in Iraq exceedingly small. I knew then with really only- average man on the street information sources - that Iraq had been seriously weakened by years of sanctions and erratic behavior by Saddam Hussein and posed no threat to us, or anyone else.

No doubt there had been weapons of mass destruction all during the years when the US supported him, support that continued even after he used mustard gas and nerve agents in 1988 on the Kurdish town of Halabja  killing 5,000 civilians, and maiming, disfiguring, or seriously debilitating 10,000. But after the end of the Iraq-Iran war Hussein fell out of favor with the US and after years of sanctions and forced international weapons inspections it was clear his WMD programs were dissembled and the weapons gone - all the weapons inspectors were saying so to a deaf main stream press and administration in the days leading up to the war. It was clear Bush wanted a war, his administration had wanted a war with Iraq pre-911 and that they were using the unspeakable tragedy on 911 as an excuse - literally using all those lives for their own purposes - lying and fear mongering to whip up America into blood lust - to act on their own personal hegemonic agenda. Mushroom clouds indeed.

What I don't understand is why so few Americans saw this at the time - is this country that asleep? That bigoted? - hell any camel jockey will do, lets just see some action? And now that we realize our mistakes and now know the truth, why don't the American people want to hold themselves or the people in the Bush administration and press accountable? A horrible crime was committed against a sovereign nation in a hate-filled bigoted based war against people that had done nothing to us. Along the way companies with direct ties to people in the Bush administration made billions of dollars - billions of dollars. And hundreds of thousands have died. And yet we are still there. Even after we know the war was based on lies, greed, and extreme ideology - we are still there.